Lock for drawers and cabinets



April 8, 1969 w. R. ZADANOFF ET AL 3,437,365

LOOK FOR DRAWERS AND CABINETS Filed March 23. 1967 l g INVENTORJ United States Patent 3,437,365 LOCK FOR DRAWERS AND CABINETS Walter R. Zadanoff, 6002 Greenbush St., Van Nuys, Calif. 91401, and Charles R. Andell, 2020 N. Bronson Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90028 Filed Mar. 23, 1967, Ser. No. 625,516 Int. Cl. Ec 3/00, 3/04 US. Cl. 292-202 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates generally to safety locks, and more particularly to safety locks for preventing small children from opening drawers and cabinets in the home.

Through curiosity, small children are prone to open the drawers and cabinet doors in the kitchen or other rooms of the home. If the child has not reached an age where he fully understands the nature and operation of such drawers and cabinets and their contents, injury may easily result to either the child or the contents of the drawer or cabinet. The child may be injured by a fully pulled-out drawer falling on him, or the contents of the drawer or cabinet may contain articles which would be dangerous to a young child. Conversely, the content of the drawer or cabinet may be such that it would be easily damaged by the child.

While there are numerous drawer and cabinet locks on the market, most of them have been designed for the purpose of preventing adults as well as children from opening the drawer or cabinet. Consequently, many of these locks require keys or other such devices for their operation. Also, these locks usually anticipate a rather permanent problem and are therefore designed for permanent installation in the drawer or cabinet. In contrast to this, most drawers and cabinets in the kitchen and other rooms of a home need only be locked while the children in the home are of such tender years as not to appreciate the dangers in these drawers and cabinets.

Summary of the invention To solve the particular problems in locking household drawers and cabinets against the inquisitive fingers of the very young without imposing an undue inconvenience upon the adults in the household, the present invention provides a gravity operated safety lock for drawers and cabinets which is simple and easy to operate for the adult members of the household, but which presents a complicated problem to a small child who has not reached the age of solving simple manipulative problems. Also, applicants safety lock is designed to be removably attached to the cabinet wall for temporary use during the early stages of the childs growth, and may be easily removed from the drawer or cabinet without marring the finished surfaces thereof when the need for the lock has passed.

Description 0 the drawing FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the present invention, a cabinet wall and drawer being shown in phantom;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 22 in FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of a plurality of locks of the present invention installed in a typical cabinet drawer and door.

Description of the preferred embodiment Referring to the drawing, the locking device, as a whole, is indicated by the numeral 10 and generally comprises a latch member 11 and a spring clip 12 for attaching the lock to the framework of a cabinet having drawers or doors. The latch member 11 is preferably made of some easily moldable but rigid material, such as plastic, glass or metal, and has a generally cylindrically shaped shank 13 which terminates at its outer end in an integrally molded latch bar 14. The latch bar 14 extends radially from the shank 13 perpendicular to the center line of the shank.

In the embodiment shown in the drawing, one end of the latch bar 14 substantially conforms to the cylindrical shape of the shank 13 and gradually tapers along its length to end in a curved surface which has a radius somewhat less than the radius of the cylindrical surface of the shank 13. The latch bar 14 thus has a generally oval shape in the plane perpendicular to the center line of the shank 13. While it has been found that this shape is very elfective and pleasing in appearance, the latch bar 14 may be of any decorative or non-decorative shape. The thickness of the latch bar 14 is such that the latch bar itself and the molded junction of the latch bar and shank 13 can withstand moderate shear stresses produced on the inside of the latch bar 14 when a drawer or door is pulled against it.

The spring clip 12 is preferably made of spring steel or other suitable material and is generally U-shaped with a front fiat facing section 16, a perpendicularly extending connect-ion section 17 and a rear gripping section 18 which extends at an angle from the connecting section toward the facing section. The outer end of the gripping section 18 which extends toward the facing section 16 is bent rearwardly and away from the facing side to form a recurve 20. The spring clip 12 is wide enough to afford a stable engagement with a cabinet wall along the facing and connecting sections 16 and 17. Small wedge-shaped portions are struck from the spring section 18 in the vicinity of the recurve and bent inward toward the facing section to form teeth 21. The inside surface of the facing 16 is preferably covered with a thin soft padding 22, such as felt.

A nut 24 is secured on its fiat side near the center of the outside surface of the facing section 16. A bolt 25 passes through a hole 26 bored through the center of the shank 13 of the latch member 11 and the inner end of the bolt is threaded into the nut 24. The bolt 25 thus extends forwardly from the outside surface of the facing section 16 and is adapted to carry the latch member 11. The diameter of the hole 26 is such that the shank 13 of the latch member 11 is free to rotate about the shaft of the bolt 25. The end of the hole 26 at the outer end of the shank 13 and latch bar 14 has a countersink 27 which rotatably receives the head 28 of the bolt 25. The head 28 of the bolt 25 and cooperating countersink 27 serve to hold the latch member 11 in position on the shaft of the bolt 25.

The lock 10 is preferably installed on a cabinet having drawers or doors by slipping the spring clip 12 of the lock over the upper edge 30 of the aperture in the cabinet frame which receives the drawer or door. In order to slip the spring clip 12 over the edge, it is necessary to bend back the normally springbiased gripping section 18 of the spring clip. Release of the gripping section 18 then allows the teeth 21 to firmly engage the inside surface of the cabinet wall 30 and causes the facing section 16 to be brought up flush with the outside surface of the cabinet edge 30. Marring of the outside surface 3 of the cabinet edge 30 by the facing section 16 is prevented by the padding 22. The lock is then firmly held in position on the cabinet edge 30 by the spring tension produced between the gripping section 18 of the spring clip 12 and the facing section 16. The engaged teeth 21 prevent the lock 10 from slipping off the cabinet edge 30.

The drawer is then closed and the latch 11 is freed so that the latch bar 14 is free to rotate downwardly by gravity into locking position over the outside surface of the drawer edge 31. The drawer cannot be opened until the latch bar 14 is rotated upwardly out of locking position. It is to be noted that the size of the facing section 16 of the spring clip 12 and the position of the nut 24 on the outside surface of the facing section will be dependent upon how far the upper surface of the drawer edge 31 extends above the lower surface of the cabinet edge 30. It is also to be noted that the length of the shank 13 and of the bolt 25 will depend upon the thickness of the drawer edge 31. The extent of travel of the gripping section 18 of the spring clip 12 is shown in FIGURE 2 and the gripping section will properly engage a variety of thicknesses of the cabinet edge 30. However, its dimensions will also depend upon the size of the cabinet edge with which it is to be used.

FIGURE 3 shows a typical cabinet having a drawer 32 and a door 33 with two of the locks 10 in position on the drawer and one lock in position on the door. In order to open the drawer 32 locked in this way, the latch bars of both of the locks 10 must be rotated upwardly until the drawer can be pulled free. Similarly, the door 33 cannot be opened until the latch bar of the lock 10 is rotated upwardly until the edge of the door can be pulled free.

While the principal of operation of the locks 10 is readily evident to an adult who wishes to open the drawer 32 or the door 33, a child who is unfamiliar with such devices and who is in an early stage of his growth will be presented with the formidable manipulative problem of operating the lock with one hand while pulling on the door with the other, thus effectively preventing his opening the drawer or door.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been described in detail, it will be understood that modifications in design and construction can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Hence, the invention is not to be limited except as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A lock for a covering member attached to a wall member having internal and external surfaces, said covering member being adapted to close an aperture defined by said 'wall member, said lock comprising:

a spring clip having a facing section with inside and outside surfaces and a gripping section connected thereto, said gripping section having an integral recurved spring angular extending toward said inside surface of said facing section, the outer end of said spring being curved outwardly away from said in side surface, said spring clip being adapted to be mounted on said wall member adjacent said aperture with the inside surface of said facing section in surface contact with the external surface of said wall member and said recurved spring being placed in tension against said internal surface of said wall member;

means extending from the outside surface of said facing section; and

a latch member rotatably mounted to said extending means, said latch member having a latch bar for maintaining said covering member in a closed condition.

2. A lock as defined in claim 1 wherein said extending means is a shaft and said latch bar is gravitationally urged to rotate about said shaft into a vertically depending locking position for maintaining said covering member in said closed condition.

3. A look as defined in claim 2 wherein:

said inside surface of said facing section is padded for contacting said external surface of said wall member; and

the outer end of said recurved spring includes tooth means for engaging said internal surface of said wall member.

4. A lock for a covering member attached to a wall member having internal and external surfaces, said covering member being adapted to close an aperture defined by said wall member, said lock comprising:

a mounting member adapted to be mounted on an edge of said aperture in said wall member, said mounting member having a facing section with inside and outside surfaces for engaging said external surface of said wall member, a resilient gripping section for engaging said internal surface of said wall member, and a connecting section connecting said facing section and said gripping section, said gripping section having an integral recurved spring angular extending toward, and engaging, said internal surface of said wall member from said connecting section, the outer end of said spring being curved outwardly away from said internal surface of said wall member and said outer end having at least one tooth extending toward and engaging said internal surface of said wall member;

a shaft extending outwardly from said outside surface of said facing section;

a latch member having a shank freely rotatably on said shaft; and

a perpendicularly disposed latch bar integral with the external end of said shank, said latch bar being gravitationally urged to rotate into a vertically depending locking position for maintaining said covering member in a closed position.

5. A lock as defined in claim 4 wherein said inside surface of said facing section is padded.

6. A lock for a covering member attached to a wall member having internal and external surfaces, said covering member being adapted to close an aperture defined by said wall member, said lock comprising:

a spring clip having a facing section with inside and outside surfaces and a gripping section connected thereto, said gripping section including an upstanding spring section extending angularly toward the inside surface of said facing section, said spring clip being adapted to be mounted on said wall member adjacent said aperture with the inside surface of said facing section in surface contact with the external surface of said wall member and with said spring section in tension against the internal surface of said wall member;

means on the wall engaging surface of said spring section for positively engaging the inside surface of said wall member;

a boss extending from the outside surface of said facing section;

an eccentric gravitational latch bar; and

shaft means operatively and rotatably connecting said latch bar to said boss so that said latch bar is gravitationally urged to rotate into a depending position to lock said covering member in closed position.

7. A lock as defined in claim 6 wherein the means on said spring section for positively engaging said wall member comprise at least one tooth outstruck from said spring section.

8. A look as defined in claim 7 wherein the inside surface of said facing section is nonabrasive and said latch bar has an elongated shank portion integral therewith.

(References on following page) 5 6 References Cited RICHARD E. MOORE, Primary Examiner. UNITED STATES PATENTS E. J. MCCARTHY, Assistant Examiner. 1,774,236 8/1930 Ohnstrand 312-333): 2,918,318 12/1959 Sacharski 292-288X 2,924,476 2/1960 Deane 292-288X 5 29 7; 1 

